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Scientific Advisory Committee

Richard Buchholz, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Biology, University of Mississippi, Ph.D. University of Florida (Areas of expertise: behavioral conservation biology, birds and mammals)

He has worked on the conservation of cracids (curassows, guans and chachalacas) in captivity and in their natural habitats in South America, cooperated with state wildlife managers to understand the impact of rodents on the restoration of bottomland hardwood forests in Louisiana, helped a graduate student translocate nestlings of the endangered Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, studied the effect of inbreeding on climbing and foraging in White-Footed Mice, and the effect of harvesting introduced guava trees on native plants in Hawaiian forests. He is interested in reintroducing endangered species to the wild, understanding the effects of habitat fragmentation on behavior, detecting behavioral characteristics of extinction prone species, investigating the role of disease in conservation, and exploring the role of seed dispersal and predation on forest diversity and restoration.

Gregory S. Butcher, Ph.D.

Director of Bird Conservation for the National Audubon Society, Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Washington (Areas of expertise: birds)

Greg oversees Audubon’s State of the Birds analyses and other research related to bird conservation. Greg has had a long association with Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count: as a participant since 1965, as a count compiler and database manager from 1984-92, and as a researcher since 1984. From 1992 to 1998, Greg served as Executive Director of the American Birding Association (ABA) where he spearheaded the addition of education and conservation initiatives to the organization’s program agenda. Under his leadership, ABA’s membership grew from 11,500 to 20,000 in five years. Previously, Greg was the Midwest Coordinator for Partners In Flight where he served on the species assessment technical committee, which determined many of the scores that underlie Audubon’s State of the Birds: WatchList methodology today. He also has served as editor of Birder’s World magazine. Greg started his career at Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology as the Director of Bird Population Studies. His key accomplishments included helping to launch Project FeederWatch, an annual survey of birds that visit feeders in winter, and the National Science Experiments, where citizen scientists collected data to answer research questions about breeding habitat requirements of tanagers, birdseed preferences, and pigeon behavior and coloration. Greg is an elective member of the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) and past president of the Association of Field Ornithologists. He has field experience in Costa Rica, where he completed the Tropical Ecology course of the Organization for Tropical Studies, organized a symposium and field workshop on monitoring bird populations at the First International Wildlife Management Congress, and organized a joint meeting of the American Birding Association, Association of Field Ornithologists, and Costa Rican Ornithologists’ Association that attracted more than 400 participants. He has been an active field birder since the age of 11, birding in 47 of the 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Chile, Europe, and South Africa.

Sylvia began her studies in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, San Diego where she completed both her bachelor and master’s degree. After graduating, Sylvia worked as a research assistant at the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University with Dr. Paul Ehrlich. She later completed her doctorate degree at the University of Missouri, St. Louis focusing on the distribution and evolutionary relationships of avian malaria parasites. She continued her research with a postdoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution’s genetics program in Washington D.C. In 2004, Sylvia became an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Environmental Fellow working with the Environmental Protection Agency. She has been with the Natural Resources Defense council (NRDC) since 2005 where she started as a science fellow researching the use of genetic data in endangered species listing decisions. She is currently a scientist with their Wildlife Conservation program.

Dr. Malcom Hunter, Ph.D.

Malcolm “Mac” Hunter is the Libra Professor of Conservation Biology in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology at the University of Maine.

He earned his B.S. in Wildlife Science at the University of Maine then went to Oxford University where he received his Ph.D. in Zoology. His research covers a wide range of organisms and ecosystems–birds, amphibians, turtles, vascular plants, mammals, lakes, peatlands, grasslands, and more–but his major focus is on forests. He has produced six books, mainly on conservation biology and managing forests for biodiversity. His interests are also geographically broad; he has worked in over 30 countries, mainly in Africa, South America, and the Himalayas. He has been active with many government and private organizations, most notably serving as President of the Society for Conservation Biology.

Dr. Inouye has worked with bumblebees, euglossine bees, pollinating flies, tephritid flies, hummingbirds, and wildflowers, on topics including pollination biology, flowering phenology, plant demography, and plant-animal interactions such as ant-plant mutualisms, nectar robbing, and seed predation. He has worked in Australia, Austria, Central America, and Colorado, where he has spent summer field seasons since 1971 at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). His long-term studies of flowering phenology and plant demography are being used now to provide insights into the effects of climate change at high altitudes. Dr. Inouye teaches courses in ecology and conservation biology at the University of Maryland, and has also taught at the University of Colorado’s Mountain Research Station, the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, and with the Organization for Tropical Studies. At the University of Maryland he directs the graduate program in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology.

Gary A. Krupnick, Ph.D.

Head of the Plant Conservation Unit, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (Areas of expertise: conservation biology, plant conservation assessments, ecology, plant-animal interactions)

Dr. Krupnick coordinates activities and research that focus on plant conservation, endangered plant species, and biodiversity hotspots. His primary research examines how data from herbarium specimens can be used in assessing the global conservation status of plant species. He has conducted conservation assessments of the flora of Hawaii and the flora of the West Indies. Along with the American Society of Botanical Artists, he co-curated the traveling exhibition, “Losing Paradise? Endangered Plants Here and Around the World,” resulting in a convergence of art, science, conservation, and education. Dr. Krupnick serves on the steering committees of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and the North American Orchid Conservation Center. He is the co-editor of the book Plant Conservation: A Natural History Approach (University of Chicago Press; 2005), and the editor of two newsletters—the Biological Conservation Newsletter and The Plant Press (newsletter of the U.S. National Herbarium).

Thomas E. Lovejoy Ph.D.

Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at George mason University, Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation and Conservation Fellow at the National Geographic.

Thomas E. Lovejoy is University Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University, Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation and Conservation Fellow at the National Geographic. He had previous leadership roles at the World Wildlife Fund-US (1973-1987) the Smithsonian Institution (1987-1999) The World Bank (1999-2002),and the Heinz Center (2002=2008). He was the first to use the term biological diversity (1980) and made the first projection of species extinctions (also 1980).

Jan Randall, Ph.D.

Dr. Jan Randall is a Board Member of the Endangered Species Coalition, Professor Emeritus of Biology at San Francisco State University and a fellow of the California Academy of Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Areas of expertise: mammals, deserts and education)

Jan grew up on a family cattle ranch in southern Idaho. She has a B.S. in zoology, University of Idaho; M.Ed. University of Washington, Seattle; Ph.D. in zoology, Washington State University; NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas, Austin; visiting professor, Cornell University. She enjoyed a successful academic career with professorships at Central Missouri State and San Francisco State University. Jan is a fellow of the California Academy of Science, the Animal Behavior Society, and the American Society for the Advancement of Science. She received a career award in recognition of her seminal contribution to the study of animal behavior from the Animal Behavior Society and an Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Idaho. Jan, who is a Professor Emeritus of Biology at San Francisco State University, is writing a book on endangered species and loves to travel, hike, and garden.

Terry L. Root, Ph.D.

Terry L. Root is Professor Emerita at Stanford University. Her research addressed how plants and animals are changing with the changing climate. She was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change 4th Assessment Report that in 2007 was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Vice President Al Gore. Also, she was a lead author for the 3rd Assessment Report (2001) and a Review Editor for the 5th Assessment Report (2014). In addition to other honors, Root was awarded the Spirit of Defenders Award for Science by Defenders of Wildlife in 2010. She has served on the boards of many environmental organizations, including National Audubon.

Root earned her undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of New Mexico, her Master’s degree in Biology from the University of Colorado and her doctorate in Biology from Princeton University. She was a Professor at the University of Michigan for 14 years, until she moved to Stanford University where she was on the faculty for 15 years.

Brian Silliman, Ph.D.

Brian Silliman is the Rachel Carson Associate Professor of Marine Conservation Biology. He holds both B.A. and M.S. degrees from the University of Virginia, and completed his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University.

Dr. Silliman was named a David H. Smith Conservation Fellow with The Nature Conservancy in 2004 and a Visiting Professor with the Royal Netherlands Society of Arts and Sciences in 2011. He has also received several awards, including the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Naturalists (2006), a Young Investigator Grant Award from the Andrew Mellon Foundation (2007), and a NSF Career Grant Award (2011). Dr. Silliman has published 13 book chapters and over 90 peer reviewed journal articles, and co-edited two books Human Impacts on Salt Marshes: A Global Perspective (with T. Grosholtz and M. D. Bertness) and Marine Community Ecology (with M. Bertness, J. Bruno and J. Stachowicz). His teaching and research are focused on community ecology, conservation and restoration, global change, plant–animal interactions, and evolution and ecological consequences of cooperative behavior.